Eight values of freedom

 Talking about the right to free speech can be complicated. Many of us tend to think of it as a single, simple idea, you either have it or you don't. But experts on the law and the people who founded our country originally broke this down into a number of separate ideas. Each one explains why our society fights to protect this right. Looking at these different reasons has made it clear to me that when we argue about free speech, we're not always on about the same thing. One of the oldest ideas is based on the idea that there should be a "marketplace of ideas". That's where John Milton said that if you let people print whatever they want without getting permission first, then the true ideas will eventually come out on top after fighting with the false ones.https://americanaffairsjournal.org

 A few hundred years later, another person, Alexander Meiklejohn, said that for a democracy to work, the people who are running for office and those who are supporting them have to be able to say what they think. Otherwise, the people won't be able to make good choices at the ballot box. Another man, Spinoza, suggested a similar but slightly more realistic reason. He said that if we allow people to express their anger and frustration, it will actually make our society more stable than if they were to fester in secret. 

Also, this lets the government notice any groups that might be planning something and could potentially cause trouble. Some of the other main reasons for protecting free speech have more to do with the individual than with the good of the whole. One of these is that it's a key part of who we are and how we develop our sense of self. When we express ourselves, we find others who are like us and that helps us feel more like a complete person. 

A second one is that a free press and media helps us expose when those in power are doing something wrong. We saw this during the Watergate scandal, for example.https://www.britannica.com/event/Watergate-Scandal And a third is that by allowing and listening to things we don't agree with, we actually become a more accepting and open-minded society. We learn why these views are not okay and so we don't just avoid them. Finally by giving people the right to express themselves, we encourage new and different forms of art and other creative pursuits. And lastly, free speech is also about ensuring that the government doesn't act like a tyrant. 

Our system isn't supposed to be run by the majority, the First Amendment exists to make sure that anyone who disagrees with the government has a right to say so and is even obligated to do so in order to be a good citizen. So these 8 different reasons show that there are many good reasons to support the idea of free speech.